Character Education

Curricula and lesson plans are at the heart of the Ethics Center's efforts in elementary, middle, and high school character education.

In addition, we provide workshops and training for teachers and principals. Our programs serve a range of students in many settings, including regular and alternative schools, parochial schools, and home schools.

Overview of Character Education

Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Character Education Director Yael Kidron describes the components of a rigorous character education program.

What Is Character Education?

By Yael Kidron, Character Education director

Character education is the teaching of values or virtues that we use every day to make decisions. There are moral virtues such as kindness, compassion, and justice, and there are performance virtues such as perseverance and work ethic. Character education programs promote these virtues, not for rewards or reputation or to avoid punishment, but because it’s the right thing to do.

A multidisciplinary field, character education affects our physical health, our mental health, our relationships with people, and how we contribute to better families, better communities, and a better society and world. The programs can take many shapes. With younger kids, we promote a basic understanding of making smart, ethical decisions and naming good behaviors. For children in preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school, this can include storytelling, art, music, social games, and role-play.

As children grow older, character education programs help them practice in more complex situations, not only through role play but also through community service. They include case studies, which help young people prioritize values and analyze complex situations that even experts and policymakers sometimes find hard to resolve. Character education can also be infused into subjects that are part of the regular curriculum; it does not have to be a standalone program. In fact, it might even be more effective when integrated into classes on social studies, health, and English language arts, for example.

Although many schools believe that their primary responsibility is to teach academic subjects such as reading, writing, math, and science, including character education can actually promote academic achievement. Research shows that students in schools with character education programs become more attentive, more motivated to learn, and more caring and respectful towards friends. When schools provide a safe and supportive environment thanks to character education, students learn better.

Character Based Literacy (CBL)

Looking for structured lesson plans aligned with the Common Core Standards in Language Arts? Our Character Based Literacy Curriculum (CBL) offers easy-to-use lesson plans for more than 200 titles, ranging from high interest and engaging reads to traditional and challenging pieces of classic literature.